Shades of Blue
by ettanoon
Summary: When Tohru smiled, A sweet, melody flowed in Yuki's head. Literally. That was the first step towards awakening his dormant heart. In the end, breaking out of his cold world will be Yuki's decision to make. But Tohru can help, with warmth and music. TxY


Natsuki Takaya owns Fruits Basket. Brian Crain and Meylene Klass were the inspiration for this fic. Thanks to Senga6 for proofreading and being my unofficial Beta!~

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**: : :: :::Shades of Blue::: :: : :**

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Yuki Sohma had woken up one morning with a song in his head. A a sort of flowing melody that sang without words. It had been echoing in his head incessantly, to the point that Yuki couldn't think, and thinking was what Yuki did best. He decided to leave his empty house, just to take a little walk in the bright, silver Saturday morning weather in hopes of clearing his cluttered mind.

Digging his hands deep into his jean pockets, Yuki ambled down the street at a steady pace, destination yet to be discovered. Yuki lived in a small, quiet, town that was painted shades of blue. He woke up in the morning to an azure sky splashed with washed out clouds, flanked by two streets of perfectly placed blue houses. People came and went as they pleased, in this little town. Yuki's own parents, for example. They had moved to this town on a whim as a young couple, and left just as quickly – forced to move to a place for those who've had their lives swept from under their feet. Then Yuki's older brother Ayame came along, and was quick to leave once he was sure Yuki could take care of himself. People passed through this town like fish in a river, but Yuki, he stayed. This was home.

The flowing melody continued to play in Yuki's head, slightly overwhelming as the autumn wind harmonized along. Yuki quickened his pace slightly, though he was still walking. Music didn't flow in untalented people like Yuki. He needed to get the tune out if his head. People floated through this town like ghosts. Yuki had drifted into one of the many desolate blue houses. More than often, houses were left empty and unlocked, nonexistent curtains revealing large rooms devoid of any furniture. This one however, housed a treasure Yuki had never before seen in real life.

A sleek black grand piano stood forsaken in the middle of an spacious room of mahogany flooring that glistened in the dark, the only light poured in from high windows. Yuki wandered over to the piano and rested the tips of his fingers on piano keys, white and smooth like porcelain. He closed his eyes and allowed the music to completely take over his mind.

The song played clearly in Yuki's mind, unfolding and composing itself without hesitation. Yuki simply listened, thoughtfully wondering where the music came from.

"Do you play?" The voice of a female suddenly broke Yuki out of his reverie. Yuki turned to see who he had failed to notice entering the room. Another stranger in this town. A girl, with long brown hair and eyes as blue as the town's color palette. Yuki looked at the girl, then down at the piano, where his fingers still lay lightly on the keys. He sat himself down on the piano bench and brought his other hand to the keys. Closing his eyes once more, he let the melody wash over him. Yuki relaxed his long slender hands, and let his fingers fall wherever they fit, pushing the keys softly down into the bed of wood that held it all together.

An awkward muddle of notes resonated and troubled the still atmosphere. Yuki started and opened his eyes wide, as if startled that the piano was capable of generating a sound any less than beautiful.

He turned to meet the gaze of the brunette in blue. "No, I don't play." He said softly. "Do you?" A smile pulled at the girl's lips and she seated herself next to Yuki. She placed her fingers on the piano just as Yuki had done, but when she played, something magical happened. The girl's lilting notes harmonized with the melody in Yuki's head, and suddenly, Yuki's mind was no longer cluttered. All he could see, feel, and hear was a dulcet melody that flushed all his senses. After a short while, the girl's fingers came to a slow and graceful halt. Yuki wanted her to keep playing.

She turned to look and Yuki and smiled. "Hi, I'm Tohru Honda."

"Yuki Sohma." He mumbled in reply.

"Nice to meet you, Yuki." Tohru said brightly, offering a smile that stirred something inside of Yuki. It was a rare bit of warmth in Yuki's cold world. "Would you like to learn to play?" She asked him.

"Yes, please." Yuki replied eagerly. Tohru lifted Yuki's wrists and placed them down so that each of his fingers occupied space on a white key, his thumbs meeting together in the middle.

Tohru pressed down on Yuki's right thumb.

"C." She spoke the name of each note aloud as she pressed down on Yuki's fingers. "C. G. G. A. A. G." Her finger lingered on Yuki's a bit longer on the last G. She repeated the process with different notes. "F. F. E. E. D. D. C." Again, she lingered slightly longer on the last note. "Did you hear that?" She asked. "It was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She went over this again, the third time, allowing Yuki to try it by himself, correcting him when he made a mistake. Yuki struggled, even with a tune as short and simple as Twinkle Twinkle. After many frustrated attempts, Yuki removed his hands from the piano.

"I'm sorry, piano just isn't the thing for me." Yuki said, getting up from the piano bench, slightly disappointed in himself, though he ignored the feeling.

"Oh. I'm sorry I wasn't a very good teacher." Tohru said. Yuki swept a hand into the air as he made his way to the door, as if to say, 'Think nothing of it.' He then escaped back into the outside world, where the music continued to flow, but it wasn't as beautiful as what happened in the piano house. The harmony with Tohru's music that only Yuki could hear, and Tohru's smile that left a significant imprint on Yuki's mind.

From the moment Yuki woke up, the constant melody had been rolling and bouncing, still there, even after hours' worth of sleep. Yuki decided to take another short walk that day, only to have it become a longer walk to the piano house, the melody in his head never pausing except for short, musical rests. Yuki had been half hoping that he'd see Tohru sitting at the piano bench, glowing from the light that poured into the dark room and shined off the reflective surfaces. He was slightly disappointed when her presence was missing, but he pushed that to the back of his mind and slid onto the piano bench. Forget Twinkle Schwinkle Little Whats-its. Yuki decided to follow his own approach. He poked at a random key and watched it bob back up. He listened to the sound it made, against the sounds in his head, with the predictability of a dancing flame.

The melody in Yuki's head suddenly mellowed into a soft, low tune, as if it was patiently coaxing Yuki to bring some more sound out of the black and white instrument. He experimentally pressed a black key and watched as it sank among the white, and popped back into place when Yuki lifted his index finger. And that's how Yuki spent the rest of the day, popping notes into the air accompanied by the soft pattering rain that had begun to fall.

By nightfall, the rain had fallen into a steady pattern, with no sign of stopping. By the time the hour was late enough for Yuki's mind to be prone to wander, he found himself conjuring images of Tohru's smile in his head, and the music in his head softened and sweetened, erasing all traces of any headache Yuki had begun to feel from mismatching notes on the piano, and the endless melody that rang in his head.

When Yuki woke, he became accustomed to the constant concert in his head. He vaguely wondered if he was going insane, smirking to himself. Who cared if he was insane? Yuki pushed himself onto the piano bench, his stiff back aching painfully from spending the night on the hard wood floors. Yuki had made some progress, being able to piece together that C sounded good with E and G, and that replacing E with the black key close to it sounded good as well, though slightly altered. He'd also found use in the little gold pedal near his feet.

Somewhere during the day, Yuki noticed the music in his head competing to drown out the noisy protests of his neglected stomach. This, he blocked out by slamming down on the piano keys and pumping the pedal enough to cause a massive headache that whipped the butts of all his previous little problems. Yuki sighed and closed his eyes, trying to remember Tohru's smile. He hadn't seen it in two days, and Yuki's memory would not suffice in calming down the roaring waves of music that sloshed around in his head, doing some considerable damage to Yuki's brain.

Once again, Yuki hadn't noticed when someone entered the room.

"Yuki! Was that you, pounding on the piano?" Tohru stood in the middle of the room, a sopping wet umbrella in hand, beads of water trickling from her rain gear to the pristine floor. Yuki removed his hands from his hair that he'd tangled in frustration. He had a migraine, a nasty one at that. He looked into Tohru's deep blue eyes, relaxing significantly, though his head still hurt like hell. Yuki nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. Seeing Tohru made him feel better, but moving his head worsened the headache again. Yuki didn't trust his voice. More noise was the last thing he needed.

"Yuki... are you okay?" Tohru asked, her tone laced with concern. Yuki cracked his eyes open. It was better to look at Tohru. It calmed the lamenting in his head. "I'm fine." Yuki said quietly. He vaguely wondered if this was what a hangover felt like. Back when Yuki's brother still lived with him, Ayame had often woken up in the mornings, obnoxiously complaining about the wicked things his hangovers were doing to his head.

"So you decided not to give up on the piano?" Tohru asked gently, a kind smile falling into place across her lips. Yuki took a deep breath. His raging storm had reduced to a steady torrent.

"I need to get a song out of my head." Yuki said. Tohru's smile faltered for a moment, as a pensive look settled on her face while Tohru considered what Yuki had said.

"Why don't you sing your song?" She asked. Yuki shook his head and regretted it. It felt like little marbles were scraping together and rolling around in his skull.

"Cystic fibrosis." He muttered. Yuki had been born with a dangerously weak respiratory system. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis since the day he was born, Yuki was well aware of the fact he would never be able to sing, run, or shout with all his might when he was angry, or ever experience the feeling of laughing until his stomach knotted and tears pricked his eyes. Constantly looming over his head was also the knowledge that on average, those with cystic fibrosis only lived to be around thirty. He was seventeen, and his days were numbered. Yuki felt a warm hand rest on his. "I'm sorry." Tohru said, sincerity clear in her eyes. She then lifted his hand and placed it back on the piano.

Yuki tried to ignore the things her touch did to his head. Instead, he focused on the fuzzy feeling that glowed warm deep inside him. Yuki stared at the black and white keys of the piano. Despite his efforts, he was still lousy at the piano. He sighed. How would he ever be able to get the music out of his head at this rate?

Tohru stripped off her muddy, wet shoes and her raincoat and sat beside Yuki on the piano bench. Yuki watched as she brought her fingers to the keys and began to play, and Yuki forgot about his headache. Swept up in Tohru's graceful melody, Yuki found himself moving his hands as well. His fingers swept lightly over the keys, and to his surprise, it sounded beautiful. Yuki and Tohru's separate melodies laced together. Suddenly, Yuki realized something.

Tohru let out a laugh at Yuki's shocked expression, taking it for a surprised reaction to the way he was suddenly playing the piano like a natural. But the real reason why Yuki's eyes widened was that all he was hearing was the music coming from the piano. His mind was silent. For the first time in seventy-two hours, his head was silent. Then Tohru's carefree laugh rang out into the air, and it was a foreign sound that brightened Yuki's world. Whether it was because of Tohru or the music, he didn't know. Nevertheless, Yuki laughed too, for the first time he could remember.

People in the little blue town came and went as they pleased, some staying longer than others. Yuki took a look at the town he lived in all his life, in all its painted blue glory. All these years he'd been living alone, going on longs walks, but never straying too far, always doing what he did best. Thinking. Until he woke up one day with a song in his head, and he could think no more. All there was left to do after that was give his mind a break and let his heart do the work. He could start loving for a change. Music became his passion, and Tohru became the one person he valued most in the world.

Yuki ambled down the street at a steady pace, destination yet to be discovered. Just another short walk that would become a long walk, the song in his head to keep him company, along with the knowledge and hope that somewhere down the road, Tohru would smile join him. The color blue was beginning to grey in Yuki's eyes. It was time he finally left.

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So, this was written on a whim. Do you like it? Well, I guess there's nothing else to say, but... Review!


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